You ever notice how every website wants your email these days? Download a PDF? Email. Read an article? Email. Try a free tool? You guessed it - email.
So you've probably heard about different ways to protect your inbox. Temporary emails, email aliases, Gmail's plus trick... but which one actually works? I've been using all three for years, and here's what I've learned.
The Three Players
Let's break down what we're actually comparing:
Temporary emails (like Temp.now) give you a throwaway address that disappears after use. No connection to your real identity.
Email aliases (SimpleLogin, Firefox Relay) create permanent forwarding addresses that send everything to your real inbox.
Plus addressing ([email protected]) lets you add tags to your existing email for filtering.
They all promise privacy. But the devil's in the details.
Gmail's Plus Trick: The Convenient Lie
Let's start with what most people try first - Gmail's plus addressing. You use [email protected] for Netflix, [email protected] for sketchy sites. Sounds clever, right?
Here's the problem: your real email is still visible.
Anyone can see that [email protected] belongs to [email protected]. It takes zero effort to strip out the plus portion. Spammers know this. Data brokers know this. That "privacy feature" is about as effective as wearing sunglasses as a disguise.
I tested this myself. Signed up for 20 services using plus addresses over three months. Within six weeks, spam started hitting my main inbox from addresses I'd never used directly. The plus tags? Stripped clean.
Plus addressing is fine for organizing your inbox - setting up filters for newsletters vs. receipts. But privacy protection? Not so much.
When Plus Addressing Makes Sense
- Organizing emails from trusted services
- Tracking which company sold your data (you'll know who to blame, at least)
- Creating filters for specific categories
When It Doesn't
- Signing up for anything you don't fully trust
- Protecting your actual identity
- Preventing spam (it just helps you filter it)
Email Aliases: The Middle Ground
Email aliases are more serious. Services like SimpleLogin or Firefox Relay generate random addresses that forward to your real inbox. The site sees something like [email protected], not your actual email.
This is genuinely useful. If one alias gets compromised, you disable it. Your real email stays hidden. You can even reply from the alias without revealing yourself.
But here's what the marketing doesn't tell you:
Everything still lands in your real inbox. If an alias gets hammered with spam, you're still dealing with it (until you disable the alias). Your inbox becomes a collection point for every service you've ever signed up for.
Account recovery gets complicated. Forget which alias you used for which service? Good luck resetting that password without some serious detective work.
It's another service to trust. Your aliases forward through their servers. That's one more company with access to your email flow.
I use aliases for ongoing services I actually care about - subscriptions I'll keep, tools I use regularly. They're perfect for that long-term, "I might need this account later" scenario.
When Email Aliases Shine
- Services you'll use more than once
- Accounts you might need to recover
- Subscriptions worth keeping
- Professional or semi-professional contexts
When They're Overkill
- One-time downloads
- Quick verifications you'll never need again
- Testing apps you'll probably delete
Temporary Email: The Clean Break
Temporary emails take a different approach. You get an inbox that exists for minutes or hours, then vanishes completely. No forwarding to your real email. No trail.
This is what I use for everything I don't need to keep. Downloading that whitepaper behind an email wall? Temp email. Signing up to read one article? Temp email. Testing a new app I'm not sure about? Definitely temp email.
The beauty is simplicity. No managing aliases across services. No spam filtering because there's nothing to filter - the inbox just disappears. No data sitting on some company's server linked to your identity.
The tradeoff is obvious: once it's gone, it's gone. No password resets. No account recovery. No "I forgot which email I used."
For most online interactions, that's actually a feature, not a bug.
When Temporary Emails Win
- One-time signups and downloads
- Testing services before committing
- Anything requiring email verification you won't need later
- Sites you don't trust at all
- Quick access to gated content
When They Don't Work
- Services you'll need ongoing access to
- Anything requiring account recovery
- Financial or important accounts (obviously)
The Real-World Strategy
After years of experimenting, here's what actually works:
Your real email: Only for people you know personally, banking, government stuff, and primary accounts (like your main Apple or Google account).
Email aliases: For services you'll use regularly and might need to recover - streaming subscriptions, software licenses, professional tools.
Temporary email: Everything else. And honestly? "Everything else" covers about 80% of email requests you encounter online.
The average person signs up for dozens of services they use once and forget. Every one of those sitting in your alias service is clutter. Every one using your real email is a potential breach waiting to happen.
What About Security?
Let's address the elephant in the room. Some people worry that temporary emails are "less secure."
Think about it this way: If a service gets breached and your temporary email is exposed, what happens? Nothing. That inbox doesn't exist anymore. There's nothing to hack, no password to reset, no account to take over.
Compare that to your real email sitting in a breach database, linked to your name, potentially connected to dozens of other services through password resets.
The most secure data is data that doesn't exist.
Making the Switch
If you're currently using one email for everything (we've all been there), here's how to transition:
Start with new signups. Use temporary email for anything new that doesn't need long-term access.
Audit existing accounts. Which services do you actually use? Keep those. The rest? Let them go.
Reserve aliases for the important stuff. That subscription you've had for years and will need to manage? Worth an alias. That app you downloaded last month and haven't opened since? Not worth it.
Keep your real email pristine. Fewer than 20 services should ever have your actual email address.
The Bottom Line
There's no single "best" solution. Each tool serves a different purpose:
- Plus addressing: Organization, not privacy
- Email aliases: Long-term accounts you care about
- Temporary email: Everything you don't need to keep
The trick is matching the tool to the situation. Don't overthink it. If you won't need the account tomorrow, use a temporary email. If you will, consider an alias. Save your real email for the stuff that actually matters.
Your inbox will thank you.
References
- Temp Mail vs. Email Alias: Which One Should You Use in 2025? - Alias Email (2025)
- Email Alias vs Plus Sign: What's Better for Privacy - SimpleLogin Blog
- Email Aliasing - Privacy Guides - Privacy Guides (2025)
- The Complete Guide to Email Aliases and Privacy in 2025 - TryThisEmail (2025)